Rafael Nadal served his way to his first final of 2016 - and the 99th of his career - at the Qatar Open on Friday, beating Ukraine's Illya Marchenko in straight sets.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates victory over Rafael Nadal in the final of the Qatar Open in Doha, Qatar.

That aside, Nadal's gradual rise back to No5 in the world, and a clutch of wins over fellow top-10 players-he beat Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and David Ferrer before losing to Djokovic at the World Tour Finals-set up this final to be an early yardstick of his level against the very best. I am playing well, won four matches here and am in the final.

This is the 28-year-old Serbian's first time taking home the falcon-shaped trophy, but also one of several other titles he's won in the past year, including the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon.

He said, though, that his priorities on the court are to win the Australian Open and to defend his Olympic title in Rio later this year.

He beat a hapless Nadal 6-1, 6-2 with a level of tennis rarely seen, even by his 14-times Grand Slam opponent, who described Djokovic's game as "perfect" and "stratospheric".

Federer's serve was bulletproof during the clutch moments, however, and the world No. 3 closed out the contest with a booming ace on his second match point.

The Serb has now won nine of his last 10 clashes with Nadal.

Nadal advanced to the semis after escaping with a hard-earned 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win against Andrey Kuznetsov of Russian Federation in their quarterfinal showdown. "It's much important because I know whom I am going to play against".

"This is exactly how I want to start the year, getting to the final in the first tournament of the year, against one of my biggest rivals".

Gracious in defeat, Rafa spoke after the match, labelling the world No. 1 as "perfection".

Having lost to Djokovic in last year's final at Melbourne Park and in the 2011 and 2013 title deciders, world number two Murray was under few illusions as to the scale of the task.

There were rallies in the first game of the second set.

Djokovic continued to apply pressure on Nadal from the baseline with a display of aggression. If you believe in it, if you, you know, dedicate yourself to it, why not? Nadal held his serve in the fourth game, and that is all he would get in the opening set as Djokovic broke again in the sixth game, before closing out the set.

Meanwhile, top seed Novak Djokovic is also competing in the semifinal round at the Qatar Open after dispatching Argentina's Leonardo Mayer, 6-3 7-5.